How can we win?

If IVAW won everything that was in its three points of unity of its founding - end the wars, heal the troops, and reparations for those harmed - it would still fail.

Why?

Because it wouldn't address the underlying cause that created the situation for all of those demands. The privatization of war and the militarism required to uphold exploitation of poor people at home and abroad.

The rest of the world knows that there are many more contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan than there are military personnel. These mercenaries offer a cheap alternative to the Department of Defense. They don't have to pay for their housing, life insurance, health insurance, death benefits, or anything else the military guarantees to its service members. They don't have to be publicly accountable to the United States public or anyone else in the world for that matter.

Since IVAW has changed the discourse and been part of the global effort to make these wars unpopular, the response has been to privatize the wars as much as possible. Because of the heroic status service members that society affords us, the public rallies against an exorbitant number of combat deaths. This has increased the use of drones and mercenaries. While it is hard to ascertain exact numbers, most outlets report there have been three times as many contractor deaths as there have been military deaths.

It is easier for the public to ignore the deaths of private citizens than military members. Meanwhile, supporting the troops is equivalent to supporting the wars, and there is no distinction.

The public's ideal is that we provide physical defense for the nation. We are also the only ones who can provide a moral compass as to what that really means and what is going on.

Private corporation's takeover of public infrastructure, such as the military, in response to public criticism, is a winning strategy used to further drive their profit while starving public needs. There is plenty of money to hire more contractors. Meanwhile, there is no money to help the veterans heal back at home or provide reparations to those who have been killed. This strategy is being used in our schools - to defund public schools, claim them a failure, and usher in charters, in our public parks - congress is selling mineral rights to our public lands and causing greater ecological crisis, and the list goes on. Public infrastructure is being privatized creates a system where we can not use our collective will to provide essential public services we can not provide on our own.

And this strategy requires militarism to protect all that privatized business. A militarized border. Police as an occupying force to protect property. Gated, closed communities with private security companies, and a rule of law that privileges the rights of a few over the rights of the many.

There is a national consciousness raising about the erosion of the rights of the United States public, and the use of militarism to do so, that is reaching its zenith. As presidential candidates openly campaign on how to start wars with Iran, we must add our voice to the rising voices that call for a full implementation of rights for the oppressed across the globe.